Guanine-rich nucleic acid sequences are capable of forming quadruplex, or four-stranded, conformations. These quadruplex structures are comprised of a series of quartets of hydrogen-bonded guanines, which together create a roughly cubical structure. Many cancer-related genes have quadruplex forming sequences in their G-rich promoter regions, including hTERT.
G-rich quadruplex forming genomic sequences provide an important target for methods and compositions that inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell death. The need exists to develop therapeutic methods and compositions comprising G-rich quadruplex forming oligonucleotides.